Writing the comic is the most important part of its creation. Whether your write an elaborate script like Alan Moore or whether you write-draw (create the story through pictures) as Chris Ware does, the comic is a form of storytelling, so the story is of prime importance.

I do not know how to write.

That’s more of a shock header than anything else. I actually believe that I am fairly capable of expressing my thoughts and feelings with words (ie, writing), but the strange thing is that I have more trouble than anybody with writing a comic!

So I am going to break this mule and fix this problem for myself starting now, no matter what!

So let’s get down to this thing, shall we?

I subscribe to the belief or philosophy or what-have-you that a story’s essence is its ending. I often say “a story IS its ending.” The ending is where the author reveals the end results of the rising action and also where the author reveals his or her themes or thesis. This can be as obvious as a speech given by a character stating a moral or it can be subtle, as the thesis’ intended truth is revealed by the example of the conclusion of the action.

I apologize for that last sentence, it is a bit awkward. Let me continue:

If the story’s thesis, purpose and life is in its ending, then what is the preceding content for? Well, it seems to me that everything before the ending is the author discovering his or her conclusions. If not, it is the author allowing the reader to discover those conclusions. Either way, the bulk of the story consists of examples that support the author’s final thesis.

Okay, so the story’s purpose is in its ending, the body is the supporting argument, so…

The FUN part for the audience is the beginning and middle of the story where ideas are tried out and explored. The IMPORTANT part for the writer is the ending where the author presents his or her final ideas on the given subject.

All of my life, I’ve been a reader. In other words, I have the mentality of the “audience.” I often joke with my friends that I have more first pages than anybody in comics. I feel I understand, almost reflexively how to begin talking. These First Pages aren’t made with an ending in mind and therefore, turn into ghost projects.

So it seems that the only reasonable thing to do is sit and think about what it is that I actually want to tell people and then work my way backwards from there.

This is probably so glaringly obvious to most of you that you’re considering clicking away now. I understand. I have even been told this much about writing, but for some reason, nothing is ever really learned until I am allowed to discover it myself.

Last week…

I was walking to my favorite brunch restaurant last Sunday when I peeked into a diner window and I saw this old couple eating. For some reason, they reminded me of the characters at the end of a hilarious buddy-cop movie where the improbable partners have earned one another’s respect and they are laughing about the ways in which their personality differences contributed to solving the case. I smiled and wondered what the beginning of that story would have been like. That’s about when all of this hit me.

anyANYway, it’s the year 2010, you can say what you want…

I did a couple of warm-up doodles yesterday, but this one’s the first finished drawing of 2010…

Re-thinking that character Zoe from “Taco Town.” Link to the comic.

Not planning on doing anything with her anytime soon, but who knows what’ll happen? Not me, I just started learning to write!

Thank you for reading, always

Happy New Year,

Darryl Ayo